Subject:
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Re: Why is AIDS such a big deal?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Fri, 12 May 2000 03:45:13 GMT
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Viewed:
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715 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Larry Pieniazek writes:
> In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Jeff Stembel writes:
> > In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Mike Stanley writes:
> > I am genuinely curious: How can you be so sure that everyone in the world
> > knows about this? Have you seen a report that stated every school district
> > in the world teaches safe sex? And even if they do, what about
> > private/religious schools, or people who home school(1)? I would wager that
> > sex related discussions are taboo in many cultures in the world.
>
> We're veering around, I think Mike and Ed and I are sparring about the US,
> where it's pretty hard to ignore the truth about how to catch it at this
> point, it being common knowledge.
I would go one step further. Venereal diseases have been around (and have been
known about) for a lot longer than AIDS has been on the scene. Most are
curable, some are not, and not all are limited in transmission to sexual
contact. My point is that, apart from unwanted pregnancy, it has been know for
a very long time that unprotected sex can potentially land you with any number
of diseases. Our bodies are all different, and we cannot accurately assess how
it will react to any given disease until we contract it. Therefore there is an
element of risk in having unprotected sex full-stop. Throwing AIDS into the
equation doesn't alter that fact, just raises the element of risk by a couple
of orders of magnitude, given it's nature.
Hence I believe those who have contracted it through sexual contact before the
accepted social awareness date (if that can in fact be nailed down) are still
responsible for their actions, as it has been known for ages that you can
contract seriously debilitating diseases through unprotected sex.
> There may be remote parts of the world that haven't figured it out yet,
> certainly, but until and unless you show that they present a clear and present
> danger, it's not our problem. You're welcome to commit your charity dollars if
> you like, but don't force me to go along with your allocation scheme at
> gunpoint, thanks.
The voluntary thing I agree on, but governments are elected by the majority,
and if the majority voted for a government who's policy is to allocate funding
to these sorts of things, then by and large you have to go along with it.
Don't like it? Vote them out. This may not be in accord with Libertarian views
on governments and such, but it's current reality.
Having said that, it is still our responsibility to make governments
accountable, particularly on how they spend our money, so discussions like
this are vitally important. I still assert that AIDS gets a disproportionate
funding allocation due to it's political point-scoring potential (too much
alliteration there!). This angers me, particularly when one of our country's
leading children's hospital is having to close services and hold fund-raises
and raffles just to meet staff wages.
> ... and we are not our brother's keeper, ...
Quoting the Bible, Lar?? Getting religious?? ;-)
Pete Callaway
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: Why is AIDS such a big deal?
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| (...) I've said that before, you could look it up. It's not exactly a quote as I believe the quote is more along the lines of: 'Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?" "I don't know," he replied. "Am I my brother's keeper?"' (NIV (...) (24 years ago, 12-May-00, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
| | | Re: Why is AIDS such a big deal?
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| (...) While I sort of agree with the general thrust here, there are two problems I can see - Most other STD have short incubation periods and obvious symptoms. SO one could have, in 1984, beleived oneself to be completely disease free and thus told (...) (24 years ago, 12-May-00, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Why is AIDS such a big deal?
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| (...) We're veering around, I think Mike and Ed and I are sparring about the US, where it's pretty hard to ignore the truth about how to catch it at this point, it being common knowledge. There may be remote parts of the world that haven't figured (...) (24 years ago, 10-May-00, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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